Euclid's Mesocoat among WSJ's innovation award winners

The winners all “tackled big problems — and came up with solutions that could make a real difference in people's lives,” The Journal says.

MesoCoat was named the winner in the Manufacturing Technology category for its CermaClad metal-coating process, which uses high-intensity light to fuse anti-corrosion materials to metal pipes.

“The company says the technology produces better coatings with production rates 40 times faster than typical metal-cladding techniques at a 20% reduction of the cost,” The Journal notes. “Cladding, in which corrosion- or wear-resistant materials are bonded to metals, is considered the best protection for pipes used in environments such as oil-and-gas production and mining.”

The newspaper says the secret to CermaClad “is a superhot plasma arc lamp that heats the surface of metal products to temperatures of up to 1,350 degrees Centigrade. Wear- or corrosion-resistant alloys, ceramics, cement or other materials are applied to the surface and bonded to the metal. Treated pipes can last at least six times longer than those using traditional methods.”

MesoCoat licensed the technology from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Commercial-scale production is expected in March 2013, the newspaper reports.

Abakan Inc., the Miami-based parent of MesoCoat, recently announced the Euclid company closed a low-interest, $1 million loan under the Innovation Ohio Loan Fund. The loan allows MesoCoat to complete construction and equipment installation of its first full-scale manufacturing facility.

In a piece reported largely from Cleveland, Reuters looks at whether get-out-the-vote operations working on behalf of President Barack Obama will make a difference in a close race in Ohio.

“If Obama holds off his Republican rival Mitt Romney in the crucial state of Ohio and goes on to win a tight race, it could be thanks to roughly 120 such field offices across the state — and hundreds more nationwide,” according to the story. “They are home to an Obama 'ground game' operation that is sophisticated in identifying potential supporters yet basic in relying on personal contact from neighbors to register potential voters and help get them to the polls.”

Democrats tell Reuters that the “breadth of Obama's organization is unprecedented in national politics — a claim that draws skepticism from Republicans, who have built a large get-out-the-vote operation of their own.”

This part of the story might not endear swing voters to the president:

At the meeting in Cleveland last month, Obama volunteers got tips on how to bring more people into the Democrats' fold.

"We want to remind you that felons can vote — past felons, current, (and) waiting-to-be-sentenced," said Eletrice Harris, an Obama staff member, referring to Ohio's law that prevents felons from voting only if they are behind bars on Election Day.

"We need to get them registered," Harris said, "because if they are not incarcerated on November the 6th, they can vote."

(To be fair, felons are a tiny portion of the electorate, and this just falls into the category of doing everything you can to get every possible vote in a close race. Still …)

Citizens of the world

In her latest column for Forbes.com, NorTech CEO Rebecca Bagley highlights Northeast Ohio's growing role in the world. (And I'm not just linking to it because she references Crain's Cleveland Business. But it didn't hurt!)

Ms. Bagley notes that U.S. metropolitan areas increased exports nearly 40% since 2009 to total $1.31 trillion in 2011. “Experts believe this increase is helping to drive our economic recovery, which supports the uptick we've been seeing in the manufacturing sector and the reshoring activity by companies like Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co. and Ford Motor Co.,” she writes.

She adds that at the recent NEO World Trade Conference in Cleveland, Brian Kim of RBS Securities noted, “We're seeing that there is a lot of interconnectedness with the (world's) economies.”

(You can read a story about the conference here. A slideshow from the event is here.)

Citing Crain's data, she writes that Northeast Ohio now is home to more than 600 foreign-owned operations. That interconnectedness is driven largely by exports.

“Especially in a manufacturing hub like Northeast Ohio exports are an essential element of the regional economy,” Ms. Bagley writes. “Simply put, many manufacturing companies pursue aggressive export programs because they're good for business.”